Jake Nez and Rachel Leeds were alerted to their mission the next morning, received a briefing of the situation by the agent who had been in charge of contact with Kat Ryan, and were off to the Amazon that afternoon.

They were given their own personal jet to take there and were scheduled to arrive that evening. While Rachel planned on sticking to the schedule, Nez persuaded her to make a stop in Beliz, which he insisted was "so romantic this time of year". Rachel supposed it couldn't hurt. They spent the night under the stars and were well rested and ready to continue their journey in the morning. They were headed to Peru's section of the forest, and it didn't take them long to get there.

Although they got to the town closest to Kat's last known location with plenty of daylight left, they soon ran into other complications. It seemed that Nez had slightly exaggerated on his "fluent" ranking on his proficiency level in Spanish. The man's skills were elementary at best, and they ended up having to locate a translator. While Rachel was a little disappointed, she knew that Nez was a good guy, and that many people probably exaggerated their skill sets when talking about themselves.

The closest person who spoke English lived three hours away. Due to the conditions of the local roads, he wouldn't arrive until that evening, which meant they had spent another day doing nothing. Rachel had briefly considered going out to search without gathering intel, but knew that was not a good idea. The rainforest was a big place, and they had no idea where to start looking. Until the man got there, there was nothing they could do but wait. Well, actually Nez had a few suggestions but none were particularly productive in relevance to the mission.

When he finally did arrive, the man spoke with the villagers across a campfire. Rachel and Nez were quick to explain the situation, so the native knew which lines of questioning to use in order to find out the information in the most efficient manner possible. He was able to tell from Rachel Leeds' demeanor that it would be best to give the agents the information they were looking for as soon as possible.

He spoke with the townspeople for a few minutes before turning to Rachel and Jake. "They say they've been seeing quite a few foreigners about lately…did your agent have any identifying features?"

"She's got blue hair," Jake answered.

Rachel frowned. That was odd. The village only had a population of 26 and was on the edge of the Amazon rainforest. It wasn't exactly a tourist location.

The translator communicated the information to the local he was speaking with, and a fast change occurred in the second man's demeanor as he began chattering animatedly and pointing towards the forest.

The translator listened, frowning for a while as he waited for the man to finish. Turning to the visitors, he said "Apparently your friend is well liked here. She would stop by and talk with them every three days. When she stopped coming last week they started getting nervous, but couldn't do anything…they didn't know who to contact."

Rachel nodded. "They wouldn't."

The man from the village spoke with more urgency now that he knew Kat was the one they were discussing. He kept turning to Rachel and Nez instead of the translator, seemingly frustrated that he had to wait for the man to relay everything he said. Seeming about to explode with frustration, the man finally grabbed a twig lying on the ground and bent down to draw some simple yet effective pictures in the dirt. One seemed to be a large, manmade complex of some kind, and the other was unmistakable- a man with a warped face and a claw attached to a deformed-looking arm.

Rachel and Nez exchanged uneasy looks, and the man stopped drawing, knowing he had communicated his message. Rachel nodded slowly, staring at the pictures. She looked up at the translator. "He thinks she's in that building, doesn't he?"

After a brief exchange, the translator nodded. "Yes."

Rachel glanced towards the tree line. If Psycho had Kat, the situation was not good. They needed to move as soon as possible. They had already wasted so much time… She knew that she could not let worry get the better of her. The best they could do right now when it was so dark was to focus on gathering all the information they could so they could get to the base quickly once the sun rose.

She sat down on the ground between the two men, Jake shadowing her, and nodded towards the local. "Please tell us everything you know about that base."

The other man translated the request, and the four sat and planned until they were sure they hadn't missed anything.

They set out at sunup the next day. The man had given the two N-Tek agents all the information they needed. They knew exactly where the base was and the best ways to get there- as well as which areas to stay away from to avoid detection.

The man had spoken of several units of guards that constantly patrolled the forest. He said they were not very intelligent or stealthy- just run of the mill men in strange uniforms that stomped around shooting everything in sight.

Jake and Rachel knew something was wrong when they saw none of these. They didn't see a single guard, and while they encountered a few traps, the place had clearly been abandoned. An entrance in the side of the base- which seemed to be converted from an old temple of some sort- was evident in the way the foliage had been crushed and trodden. The people leaving did so with plenty of equipment and people, and did not really seem to care about covering their tracks. Whoever had been here had left on their own time, and with everything they needed.

The two drew their guns and approached, ready for more traps, but there were none. The door hadn't even been closed all the way, and there were plenty of insects and spiders inside the tunnel leading into the heart of the temple. They walked slowly, not wanting to make any stupid mistakes after coming so far.

"She's not going to be here," Jake whispered. "If they had her, they would have taken her along with them- they wouldn't have just let her go."

"And if they didn't have her?"

"Then she wouldn't be hanging around here...The place is abandoned, Rachel. It looks like Psycho won…"

Rachel sighed. She knew he was probably right, but she also knew what the manual would say. "We have to clear the area. Make sure there's nothing to be found."

Nez nodded. "All right."

They were silent as they continued to make their way through the base. Every room they cleared increased the sense of dread they felt. Several rooms were full of expensive equipment that looked like they would be used to process chemicals. They doubted Psycho had gotten away with a truckload of Penicillin.

At the end of the hall there was one more door- from the look of it, it was probably been where prisoners had been kept. It was heavily reinforced and looked like it took two key cards to open it simultaneously. This too, had been left open. Psycho really must not have had anything to worry about.

Rachel picked up the pace. "Come on, this is the best lead we could have. Maybe Kat was able to leave us some sort of message."

Nez nodded. "I'll take point."

Rachel faltered. She wasn't used to letting anyone take the lead.

Nez stopped, and gently put his hand on the side of her face. "It could be a trap. Please let me look out for you when I can."

She didn't know what to say, and she felt herself melt a little when he said that, so she stayed silent.

He saw she was making no effort to overrule him. He smiled. "Thank you."

She remained five steps behind him while he entered the room, making sure to check behind the door before he signaled her in. There were four cells in the area- the first three were open and obviously empty. The last one was the first closed door they had encountered since they had arrived.

Rachel's heart quickened. They had left her behind. They were going to save her. Nez was apparently thinking the same thing as he rushed to kick the door open. Guns drawn, ready for surprises, they crowded into the tiny room.

The cell stank. The corpse on the floor was unmistakably dead, but Rachel ran to check for vitals anyway. She shook the body, commanding it to wake up, and feverishly struggled to find a pulse, to hear some sort of heart beat.

Nez stood stunned and silent. Rachel hadn't had the chance to see the message written on the wall in big blocky letters: WE DIDN'T WANT TO WASTE A BULLET. SHE'S ALL YOURS. A date was scrawled under it- August 12, 2000. Almost eight days ago. Scanning the floor around him, he was unsurprised to see any remnants of food or containers that might have held water. The room was sweltering. They had just left her for dead.

Rachel had not given up, switching from gripping the corpse's wrist, putting her fingers to its neck, and pressing her ear to its chest.

Jake struggled to keep his voice from breaking. "Rachel."

She ignored him, continuing the actions which had become almost ritualistic.

He crouched down beside her. "Rachel."

She pushed him away.

"Rachel, stop." He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him, and held her so she couldn't look at the body. She struggled half-heartedly against him for a moment, then gave up and let herself lean in to his embrace.

He reached up to activate his communicator. "Officer Jake Nez, official record. N-Tek employee Kat Ryan declared deceased at 09:07, August 19. 2000."

Rachel and Jake sat against their plane in the middle of the field where they had landed the day before. Kat's body had been picked up by a US employee of the American Embassy, and was on its way back to Del Oro for analysis.

Jake held Rachel tight, pulling the blanket they shared closer. "You know they've prepared a room for us in town."

Rachel shook her head slowly. "Did you see their expressions when we told them she was dead? …I can't face them."

He took her face in his hands and tilted her chin up so she would meet his eyes. "Rachel…you know we couldn't have done anything to save her…right?"

She met his eyes, smiled sadly, and nodded in agreement.

"Good. It wasn't our fault- you know that. I won't let you blame yourself for this."

She nodded again, putting him at ease. He couldn't know what she was thinking. He couldn't know that she was analyzing every minute they had wasted- from the late departure from Del Oro, to the side trip to Belize, to his misleading everyone into thinking he was fluent in the local language. He couldn't know that no matter what he said, she knew what they should have done. She knew they could have saved her.